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AMUSEMENT SECTION
PHOTOPLAY
THEATRES
DANCING
MUSIC
ICetor
tuenmn
PHILADELPHIA, SATURDAY EVENING, JANUARY '22, 1916
RUSSIAN BALLET INVADES
AND CONQUERS AMERICA
Scenery, Dancing, Costumes and Music Com
bined in a Revelation of What the
j Arts Can Accomplish
THE SPLENDOR AND VITALITY OF THE RUSSIAN BALLET SKETCHED IN ACTION AND REPOSE
I
' irlTH all the glory of Its European trl
."Wumphs shining bravely ntiout Its
il.il the Russian Uallet came to America
, lut Monday night. Some time In March
(6 same ball scasoneu uy u luiiB nmr,
R tonus to 1'hlla.lclphla for a wccK, whlcli
iiuit be the grand climax of the year's
lifllstlC'eflorts. ill i-nria inc oiiiiui nusso
. more than a sensation! It was almost
o" j.i...iimta n'orn fnllchl. Alluilsto
Fjiodln lost'standlnc with the aovcrnment,
(h nrlces soared to 60 francs for a scat
?.n. itnrn there will probably bo no
!' nuel's, except of wits, but the spectacle of
i three arts, magnlncently conceived and
eomblned, win create a ircinenuuus i
Bulie toward beauty, and every word
lihich can ho spoken In welcome should
For another week the ballet will be vis
ible at the Century, nnd tho Phllndcl
chlsn who llnds himself In New York of
n evening need hao no doubts ns to
where to Ko. Hut, unless one Is warned
beforehand, n disappointment surely
straits those In quest of tho old ballot
for It exists In the troupe of M. Serge
de Dlaghllcrf only by courtesy. In tho
dress rehearsal, which anticipated In
every respect tho first progrnm, there was
but one number which could be Identi
fied as pure ballet The rest, and the im
portant feature of tho season, Is really
Mntomlme, with music, and gorgeously
costumed and set. Movement, gesture.
..' a - , In.. 1.-- ntlltll.la
expression ul cmuiiuiio uy tuuuuu ui
limb, of bod or of face predominate In
the "Firebird" (IOlsenu de Kelt) and In
"Scheherazade." In "The Midnight Sun"
(Bolell de Nult) arrangement and com
bination of dancers aro far more Impor
tant than the dancing Itself. And In no
J case, smco NlJInsky Is not of tho com-
sany. Is Individual dancing to bo com
pared with the total effoct of groups.
It would be useless to attempt dodging
the NIJInsky-Knrsavlna issuo. The first
thing that needs to do said is tuat tnerc
baa been no breach of good faith. St.
de Dlaghllcrf Is not nn American, and the
direction of tho Metropolitan la not com
posed purely of business men. Moreover,
the presumption Is nil In their favor, for
If these two nrtlsts wcro never expected
the publicity dopnitment would not have
K
wasted four months, and heaven Knows
how many columns of newspnpor and
magazlno space, In advertising them. M.
Nljineky is held In Austrian Poland.
Should ho be freed In time for tho latter
', part of the season, that woulij be n mir
acle ana a messing, isui u 13 rnwier goon
not to hnvo great Individuals In a ballet
where so much attention must be given
to the whole
The Four Ballets
'The four ballets exhibited In the first
-program, and seen by the writer nt tho
dress rehearsal, Introduced music by Igor
Strawlnsky, scenery and costumes by
AOolovlne, Bakst and Larlonof, and choie-
lotraphy by Foklno, aB novelties. Tho
Scheherazade" has been danced In
T'merlca before; tho style af dancing In
"The Enchanted Princess" Is moro than
firalllar. And It must be said thnt for
1 Individual dancing the fragile, beauty of
; Anna Pavlowa und tho dash of Michael
1 llcrdkin are not excelled by tho Htnrs of
I the present aggregation. What Pav
lowa has alwas lacked has been jutjt
nch a director ns Dl.ighlleff and Just
uch a feeling for tho united Utility of
Uie arts as Is making the Ballet Itussc
L"CHAS., BY JOVE,
'OWS YER 'EART"
Pit Takes England to Give Us the
Chaplin News,
Y'Know
rtnm London Opinion.
tharlle Chaplin'o dally working hours
are from 9 n. m. to 5-SO p. m.
Every day 12.000.000 neonlo see him on
: the. screen at picture palaces throughout
'the world.
He Is a Londoner, born at Walworth In
1O0, and nil his relations were In the
h theatrical piofesslon.
All his comedies nra now nroduced
under his own direction at Los Angeles.
California, mostly by British players.
America has Chnnlln ties, shirts, collars.
, lOckl, tocktcHs. clubs, yachts and
societies, nnd one of the thoroughfares Is
"lied Chaplin street.
Very fOlld nf mnclr. IMinrlto fMirtnlln can
$laV almnat nnv lnat.-iim.knfr nriH la fl
im.si., ;""'"" "" ' -
HUtldrO.1 nt tliAan ihIia mifl ttiAcA tin AH
rhaye jeen charllo Chaplin In the flesh.
IW used to be one of tho "Klght Lanca
shire i,ads," and afterwards made a
The Critic's Duty
As I tee H, u 1,, u ,.rc' duty, above
everjtlilnjT eUe. to interest hla audience
Mther the play be I. renewing Inter
JJM Its audience or not. George Jean
".than.
THE MOVIE
4 camera msm ot the Paramount
i
something more than an entertainment,
actually a new art and a new sensation
The "Firebird" Ir the story of a Czare
vitch who captures a wonderful burn-Ing-brlRht
bird and frees It because ho
cannot bear to crush Its beauty. As a
reward he Is Riven a feather from her
Plumage, nnd by the aid of this token
can lesrup himself nhd nn enchanted
princess from the wiles of n villainous
crow of dwntfs, gnomes, llttlo men and
djlnns. Hero Is all the material of a
ballot, a story which can be expressed
In gesture and n setting which can be
fantastic and beautiful. M. Golovlnc's
set Is an nstoundlng crentlon. The very
sky Is inlaid with nrnbesqucs, and against
It li an Incredible tower whoso turrets,
under the changing light, Hash from dull
pink to startling red. There Is no flat
for the cyo to rest on. everything Is
movement and wonder. The costumes,
too, nre strange, unreal, captivating, nnd
Strawlnqky's music, full of odd disso
nance, of tricks and queer sounds, ex
hausts the full vocabulnry of grotesquerlo.
A Classic Interlude
Tschalkowsky's "pas de deux," called
classic, was a slight thing In comparison
ith this. The fnct that Mme. Maclczovn
pirouetted even .11 times on one set of
toes without touching ground with the
other was hardly a thing for the alarmed
Imagination tu dwell upon. Interest held
over until the "Solclt do Nult" began to
rhino, reduplicated In ton grinning pump
kin bends, red and almost obscene. The
"Midnight Sun" Is, In fact, a representa
tion of Russian folk games and dances.
It Is full of bucolic humor, of awkward
ness, of sport. Hobyl, the pumpkin with
his hnnds tied together, and the "Mid
night Sun" himself, with gilded disks
like cymbals attached to his hands, arc
the characters, but tho Inspiring centre of
tho dance, nnd of the action Is the human
crowd. As In the preceding ballctB color
was everything but action. There was
room for no other clement, so that what
was felt In the music was not rhythm, not
melody, but color Itself.
And finally the "Scheherazade," a sen
sual, terrible drama, esqtntlc and awful
and grand. For this performance the fa
miliar yellow of Dnhst's set was changed
to green and tho costumes, too, were al
tered. The Btory of the luckless and faith
less Zobcldc, snared by her Shah and dis
covered in the midst of her amour with
the binck slave Is familiar, but no repeti
tion can dull tho keen edge of Its sensu
nllty nor spoil the terrible effect of Its
vengeful climax. Tho magical Intensity
of Mme. Itevalles as Zobeldo, tho mad
leaping of the odnllsqucs and their tovers,
tho carnival rout of all nt tho end were
nil elements In the drunkenness of nil sen
sations. And around and about them,
weaving the men and women into mere
lines or masses of color, was tho decor
Into which a.l melted In it fury of lust.
Such was the offering at tho first per
formance. Later tho dance arranged to
Debussy's famous prelude to Mnllnrme's
"Afternoon of a Faun" was danced. This
Is a more mannered, more Individual bal
let, and here, perhaps, the single star had
his place. Dy all account the music and
tho setting of Bakst had all their old
power to charm, to stifle nnd finally to
outinge tho senses. Tho other ballets In
the repertoire of tho company are too
numerous to be mentioned separately.
In this, us in all things, the total effect
Is what counts. Uy every sign, they
should count hero enormously, a. V. ri.
The motion picture la n unlteraal lan
guage. Men and womrn of different na
tionalities and inr)lng intelligence ran
liiulerbland It. It ha become one of
tlu Horld'n greatest literature. It bus
prn cmi It uortli, and under the eon
ktrtictlte gtildnnrr of uhnt, I am orr
tu my haH been the minority. It will go
on In further victories. M". W. Hod
kinnaii. success In Mr. Fred Karno's "Mumming
Birds" sketch.
With salary nnd royalty on his films
ho earns about 100 a week that Is
M,0u0 a ar.
Rather than lose his services to another
company for a fortnight his employers,
the Essauay Company paid Charlie a
bonus of 5000 to stay with them.
Itecently a character representing
Charlie Chaplin was Introduced Into a
revue touring tho English provinces.
This caused the taking to rise from 100
to 1075 In a week.
Making his first nppearance In pictures,
f. C. pl-iyed the part of a man with a
limp and a backache trying to carry a
scuttle of coal on his head while climbing
a gre'isy ladder.
Off the stage he Is a good-looking young
man with curly hair and perfect teeth,
aiu: his feet are. In reality, small.
When he was eight yeais of age he
narrowly escaped being drowned. He
fell Into tho water und, In an exhausted
state, was saved by a dog belonging to
one of the Thames police.
He Is the only person in the world,
except the American President, who has
been granted free admission to all base
ball ipatLhes In Ameilcn.
CAMERA IN THE LAND
"arra?J9
latTAM
THE CHIEF EUNUCH
PHOTOPLAY THE
GREATEST CRITIC
A Prominent Player of Stage
and Screen Casts His Vote
for the Movies
By EDWIN ARDEN
If tho actor on the speaking stage who
thinks ho has reached perfection could
go Into the motion pictures for hnlf a
year he would find that he possesses
faults which ho ueer dreamed. The mo-tlon-plctuie
actor, If bo Is serious, may
alnays progress In his acting. Ills mis
takes aro constantly before him on the
tllms In which he has appeared, and ho
can profit by them nnd sec his own Im
provement In succeeding pictures.
Motion pictures require finer acting than
the stage, for the eye of the camera Is
much quicker and much moro exacting
than the eye of the audience in a theatre.
Tho human volco covers over many de
fects of pantomime. Make-up and colors
effect many softening delusions on the
speaking stage.
In the pictures it Is diffeicnt. Ilefaro
one Is a grim cyclops, which does not
He or palliate offenses. It records every
gesture, every movement of the face or
body with merciless truthfulness, nnd Is
therefore the most efllclent critic there Is.
"THE BOX OFFICE
Scene: O.irrlck Theatre. ..,.,,
rMimmiiiii?nc,,la,r H,ter,,oon at VM bar
pain mawHciw.
Urarnaus 1 eraonae ins pour uuaumio innn
anj a long line of waning patrons.
ENTER, first She (for It was a woman)
with n loud voice and the desire to
Impress upon tho waiting line that she
was a sure-firo theatre-goer.
"I'll have two seats on the alslo be
tween the first nnd thlM rows."
"for what performance, madam?"
"This afternoon, of course. Did you
suppose I was coming next season?"
"I can let you have two seats on the
16th row. three seats from the aisle."
"I said on tho first three rows; didn't
you hear mo?"
"I heard you, but we are sold now back
to the 16th row."
"Sixteenth row? Why. I couldn't hear
that far back. I wouldn't think of tak
ing them. Where's the manager?"
"Vou'll find him at the door. mada. .e.
Next, please?"
"Walt a minute, I'll take those seats,
but I'm sure some better seats are In
there, and I'm Just going to wait and
see." (Hands the boxofilce man a SI bill
for two $1 seats),
"Two dollars, please, madams the
seats are Jl each."
"I didn't want fl seats; I wanted the
gallery."
OF THE INCA
"" IwUlM f fatetor
gr w VV- Wi
2-i- "ikLJ1 ?lw.t,, aw W- M 2i .
The great tendency In acting Is to
overact, not to underact. Tho screen de
mands a mere suppressed nctlng, a
subtlety of facial expression nnd a poise
TREE AS SARGENT SAW HIM
A sketch by the eminent artist
of tho English actor-manager, Sir
Herbert Tree, who has como to
America to appear in Triangle
Aim productions and to present
excerpts from his Shakespearean
repertory in New York this spring
coincident with tho tercentenary
of Shakespeare's birth.
MARTYR," A COMEDY BY
I By this time the man directly behind
her succeeds In setting his face In the
I rtm -.i......
I uvwui.i iruiuun.
The man What kind of a show la It7
Pretty good?
B. O. M. Very fine show.
"What are your prloes?"
"Fifty cent to fl,"
"Same prices for the nights?"
"Night prices are from 50 cents to J1.E0."
"Any good ones left for tonight?"
"Yes, sir. How many?"
"Have you a chart showing where the
seats are?"
II. O. St. digs for the chart and shows
him where he can get the scats.
"What are the first rows In the bal
cony?" "Dollar and a. half."
"What are the prices back of that?"
"Dollar and some 75 cents."
"Well, I don't know that I'll be able
to stay In town tonight, but if I do I
guess I'll come over for a while."
B. O, Jl.-to himself ??? T'f anu
two more??
The next few know what they want and
keeps the line moving for a few minutes.
Then another (she) comes.
"Is this a picture show?"
"No, madame, It's a drama."
"I don't like dramas. Where Is there
a good picture show?"
"I really couldn't tell you, madame."
"Don't you know what's playing In the
city? I should think you men in the
.business would know what la going on
in your own line."
"We don't play pictures here, madame.
Please allow the lady next to you to get
to the office. The ads In the newspapers
will advise you where good picture shows
are running."
"Don't set fresh, young- man. or I will
report you to the management "
The next four purchasers all want
seats not further back than the sixth
row, and each wants aisle seats. The first
because she can't see very well. The
next (a man) because he Is a. little hard
of hearing; the third, because he must
sit on the aisle (left hand side) on ac
count, of a leg which he has to stretch
occasionally, and the fourth because he
has a cold and doesn't want to disturb
the audience If he has to get up and leave
the theatre (for a saloon).
Then the matinee girl gets within reach
of the poor U. O. JI.
"Seats reserved for Miss pleas?"
The B. Q. St. looks through the L's and
finds nothing In the name mentioned.
"There la nothing here In that name,
Miss. Would it be In any other name?"
"Of course not. It'a funny when I or
dered them last Saturday,"
"Did you get them here at the boxofilce,
illus?"
"No, I phoned for them, and you said
you'd have them on the second row "
"You didn't phone here. Miss, for we
have no phone In the boxofilce."
'I guess I know where -I phoned. By
the way. what's playing here?."
'On TriaL-
"That's not what I wanted to see. It
was umetHlng- about a lion. When does
tbat come?"
"There i no ankwi show la town tht
kt)
of. UUm.'
and control of bodily movement which
Is not so necessary on tho stage.
There Is not any great fundamental
difference In acting for tho stngo and tho
motion picture. Thei Is only a differ
ence In tempo and degree. Quick and
violent action seems disjointed on the
screen. Exaggerated facial expression
seems ridiculous. It Is temperate acting,
then, which the actor must always have
In mind before the cnmeia.
The motion plctuies have entered Into
a. now era: It Is a subtle, Involved plot,
thoughtfully worked out und artistically
produced, which the public wants, and
which the pioducers aio lurnlslilng The
broad play of the past Is gone and tho
loflncd. delicately handled photoplay has
taken Its place.
Tho speaking stage will be superseded,
without doubt, by the motion pic tures
unless malingers offer inducements tu the
youth of tho Innd to stay with the legiti
mate profession.
Pictures pay tho actor much more than
the stage. It Is not because tho pi mincers
are philanthropists, although they aro
generous. It Is because they consider tho
acting north the money.
The pictures oftcr 11 fortune for the
ambitious young man and woman. They
11 Iso allow leewuy for original. ty and I -dlvldunllty.
The Mnso will die before
very many years unless managers cbango
their tactics.
Ia, where the itiine, the poor, degraded
tsr,
llulils Ha warped mirror to 11 supine age.
Chnrleii Spracue, CurloMty.
C. C. WANAMAKER
"That's funny. I read In tho paper
there was a matinee here Thursday and
phoned for seats."
"This Is Wednesday. Miss. Maybe It's
at some other theatre."
"How stupid of me. it Is Wednesday.
Isn't It?"
Seven persons are satisfied to get the
best left when the next one secures the
poor 11. O. M.'s attention. He is a big,
positive fellow, with a deep voice.
"What's the Intermission?"
"Tho what?"
"The Intermission?"
"About seven minutes between acts."
"Naw, nix with this stuff. I mean what
does It cost to t.ee the show?"
"Fifty cents to JI."
"Gimme four bltB' worth."
Among the next in line Is a girl who
doesn't know what performance she wants
to see, anotner who wants to exchange
tickets she has for another theatre, still
another who has seats for a performance
given three weeks before and on account
of having 'been out of town wants them
exchanged for the play now appearing,
and a man who lost his umbrella at a
religious gathering at the theatre two
weeks before and who thinks tho man
agement should pay him for his loss.
And still the poor boxofflce man is sup
posed to be patient and alwujs smiling,
THE CHRISTENING OF BRYAN THE
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At this auspicious occasion we se "Vice President and Mrs Marshall, DavidJIorsley, Harry E. Tudod. Jn.
Fais aad Cap!; Jack Bonavita, o the Jlorsiey Film Company, and The Scrappef so christened by Mrs, Hsr?fcat!,
uruun nt tho Century Theatre. Now Yor.
WALTER PRICHARD EATON SEES
THE WEAVERS' AND WRITES OP IT
In This Week's New York Letter Popular Critic
Reviews a Current Attraction of
Unusual Merit
By WALTER PRICHARD EATON
EM-ANUEL ItUICIIER, the noted CJer
man actor, who has learned to pro
nounco English after a fashion and has
rented tho Onrden Thcutrc. In Now York,
this winter, where ho Is endeavoring to
croa.o something at
least remotely akin
to th- New Freo
Tolk Theatre, In
Berlin, has made,
for his second bill,
a production of
Hauptmann's play,
"The Weavers
("Dlo Weber"). So
far as the present
writer can find rec
ord, this Is tho first
presentation of tho
play In America,
cither in Knglish or
German. Possibly, It
WALTER V EATON has been acted in
tho original In some of the German cen
tres, like Wllwaukee or Indianapolis, but
we liao not an record of the fact.
Yet It Is odd that "The Weavers" has
not reached our stage Lcfore not the
popular stage, to be suie, but our ex
perimental theatre because, while It Is
one of Hauptmann's earlier works,
antedating "Hannele" by six months and
"The Sunken Dell" by three jears (It
was Introduced in Der!.n In February,
1693), It is a play of quite extraordinary
naturalism, and takes the drama, about
as far as It perhaps can go awy from
the conventional plotting and arrange
ment not, however, aloi.g tho lines of the
Shaw dialogues, such as "Getting Mar
ried." but along the lines of making not
an Individual but a whole movement the
hero of the drama.
It Is piobably not the rashlon to read
Huuptiuann any moie certainly not
since this war began, and everything Ger
man has como under the ban one of
the terrible results, of International
strife. The new generation can hardly
be aware of tho eagerness with which
we youngsters In the 80s used to wait
for nens ot his Intest drama, and for
the text. Sudermann's "Helmat" ("Mag
da") was also produced In lblg, and at
once went around the globe, as nothing
of Hauptmann's ever did. not even "The
Sunken Bell." "Magda" In Germany
and "The Second Mrs. Tanqueray" In
I.'ngland were really the outstanding In
ternational successes of the liOs, with'
Itostand's "Cyrano" a close second. But
neither Hudermann nor Plnero had the
quality of idealism which the heart of
am
id
iia y Stw
1 sHOMl
,L,'Ot'fiNU.i:tu-
Cnuiri. v
.imucl McCoy.
youth found In Hauptmann. Ifnupt
mann wns a dreamer as well as an ex
pcrlmenter. In one piny he would carry
naturalism to a point beyond Ibsen: In
his next work ho would resurrect Gor
man romanticism, and remind you, per
haps, of Hclno; In his next he would be
Shakespearean but always. In every play,
remaining Hauptmann. tho Idealist, the
respecter of tho Integrity of the, human
soul, of human freedom How many such
poets and writers Germany has produced?
It Is they uho will have to make the
hostile nations forget 1011 nnd Belgium.
Well, "The Weavers," which la the par
ticular object of our remarks, has at
laBt rearhed our American stage, and
reached It by means of a rather surpris
ingly good production we say surpris
ingly good, because, although Ilerr
Itelchcr himself Is a fine nctor. his re-,
sources are limited, and "The Weavers"
demands a long cast. But with the aid
of several German actors In New Yorlt
who speak English, he has overcome this
difficulty, and trained his large company
Into that Intelligence and naturalism of
ensemble which characterizes the Ger
man theatre.
"The Veavers" Is a play In which the
hero is a strike. There may be Individ
ual, personal heroes, in the sense that
tho strike has leaders, and there may be
Individual villains In the sense that the
strike Is aimed at certain manufacturers,
one of whose houses Is sacked. But even
here the charactet are not continuous,
The leader in the first apt, Is-not the
leader In the second. The manufacturer
the strikers nre attaching at the begin
ning fades out of sight before the end,
and the strike has moved on to another
village.
Neither, for that matter. Is the strike
Itself ever settled, the story brought to
a conclusion. At the close we bear that
the strikers have tho best of It with the
local police, but we feel quite certain
that tho koiaiery will be upojUhem short-ly,-and
what then?. Nothing Is really set
tled. The play is but a naturalistic pic
ture of the woes of the German weavers
In the '40a, without any preachment "what
ever, save as one Jurka In Hauptmann's
very eyldent sympathy with (lie,, down
trodden and oppressed. Ho naturalistic Is
It, In fact, and'so keen Is this sympathy,
so human, that today. In 1915, Jhe. drama
seems Infinitely more up to date than
either 'Slagda" or "The. Second Mrs,
Tanqueray," Its poxe famous cqntppo--
Continued en l'sie Twa
SCRAPPER
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